September 8, 2025
by Carole Zangari -
We’re reprising Make It Monday, a series in which we hope to inspire your team to create communication boards and instructional materials for students who need or already use core vocabulary. In the first post, Getting Ready for a Core Vocabulary Journey, we talked about getting set up to make materials for expressive and receptive language use. Today, we get into making manual communication boards (MCBs). About Manual Communication Boards The term manual communication board refers to a ‘no-tech’ AAC support that students can use to express themselves. Typically printed on paper and laminated, most MCBs have grids of words organized by part of speech (e.g., verbs in one area, adjectives in another). MCBs that are designed for use in a particular activity, such as doing an art project or participating in Circle Time, are called activity-based communication displays, or ABCDs. ABCDs were very popular in the early days of... [Read More...]
October 16, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
Improving how school teams support students who use AAC is a high priority for families and professionals alike. In today’s video, we feature AAC SLP Vicki Clarke of DTA Schools and Nicole Palumbo of PRC Saltillo, who discuss ways to provide school personnel with systematic AAC training. Many thanks to the presenters and to SWAAAC for this helpful presentation. Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCWDz9nw6s&ab_channel=SWAAAC
May 20, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
Our series on AAC group therapy continues with guest authors Marisa Portanova and Marnina Allis. In today’s post, they share ideas for helping young AAC users enhance their literacy skills. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: PrAACtical AAC Groups Made Easy – Let’s Be Authors Last week, we discussed our ongoing weekly groups. Once we had success and saw progress made in the weekly groups, we came up with the concept of “AAC intensive groups,” where children would come in over a school break for a week and participate in the AAC groups for 5 consecutive days, for a longer stretch (about two and a half hours). This gave children a chance to interact with children from different classes and helped reduce the regression of learned AAC skills over the school break. During those weeks, we picked one book per day for the first 4 days. Day 5 was for review, discussing opinions of each... [Read More...]
May 16, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
Parents of children, teens, and adults who are learning to use AAC often find themselves in need of more support than they typically receive. Today, we are excited to launch a new series that addresses this need. This series is built around a unique collaboration between PrAACtical AAC and the Angelman Syndrome Foundation (ASF), bringing together our expertise to create a set of training materials that caregivers can use to build an AAC presence in their lives or expand its use in daily living situations. These materials are now available on both of our websites, ready to empower and support you in your AAC journey. In today’s post, you’ll learn about the Stepping Into AAC program and how to access the materials. Future posts will focus on the implementation of AAC by families who want to enhance communication at home and in the community. Who is the target audience for... [Read More...]
March 28, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
As March draws to a close, we extend our welcome to guest authors Michaela Sullivan and Lindsay Dougherty, who are back with another set of core vocabulary resources for teaching older students. Today, this dynamic team has a rich array of materials and suggestions to help them build fluency with the April core vocabulary words. They also discuss how to support AAC users during a popular classroom activity, shared reading. SCHOOL YEAR OF CORE- Older Student Lessons The Google Slide Resources Weeks 1-2 Google Slides Weeks 3-4 Google Slides INTRODUCTION- April 2024 Welcome back to the School Year of Core – Older student lessons for middle school to adult learners. How are things going? How are the resources working for you and your learners? We would love your feedback and your ideas. If you have any slides that you find work especially well for your students and adult learners, please... [Read More...]
January 31, 2024
by Carole Zangari -
Today’s featured video, Finding Your Passion, will brighten your day. Karanveer Singh, winner of the 2024 Edwin and Esther Prentke AAC Distinguished Lecture Award, shared thoughts on finding your passion in this witty, insightful presentation. Many thanks to PRC Saltillo for sponsoring this important award and to ATIA for livestreaming this event from their conference in Orlando and making it available for the AAC community. Our appreciation and hearty congratulations to this year’s awardee, Karanveer Singh. Enjoy! Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWPiwPebPEI&ab_channel=ATIA
December 28, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Welcome to the first post in the School Year of Core Vocabulary Words – Older Student Lessons Series! In this post, guest authors Michaela Sullivan and Lindsay Dougherty focus on a selected set of words to highlight for the month. In addition to their wonderful slide decks with activity ideas, they also share helpful implementation tips for using descriptive teaching/talking. Finally, don’t miss the data collection forms specific to Level 1 and Level 2 words. SCHOOL YEAR OF CORE- Older Student Lessons INTRODUCTION- January 2024 Happy New Year! Welcome back to a new School Year of Core Series, School Year of Core – Older Student Lessons (SYOC-OSLs), which was created for individuals in middle school through adulthood. We hope that this new year brings joy, peace, and fulfillment to you and your learners. Thank you for continuing to pursue new ways to support your students and adult learners to communicate... [Read More...]
September 6, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Learning from AAC users and hearing the lived experiences of those who use AAC is a powerful and important experience. Today, we hear from Ashley Mohesky, winner of the 26th annual Edwin and Esther Prentke Distinguished Lecture Award. Ashley, a licensed mental health counselor who uses AAC, presented this lecture in Orlando at the 2023 ATIA Conference. We are grateful to Ashley for this session and to ATIA for hosting the presentation. Many thanks to PRC Saltillo for sponsoring this event each year, and to Gail Van Tatenhove for chairing the selection committee. Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGNQRbNXp2I&t=686s&ab_channel=ATIA
August 27, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Welcome to Stepping into AAC ! Stepping into AAC is a collaborative project created by PrAACtical AAC and the Angelman Syndrome Foundation (ASF) that focuses on supporting families who want to integrate AAC into their lives. There are 20 weeks of Stepping into AAC materials, which are intended to provide simple, week-by-week resources to help families support beginning communicators of all ages. Each week, there are easy hands-on activities, videos and companion handouts, and a newsletter to learn from. Thanks to the generous support of the ASF, these materials are available at no charge. Stepping into AAC is designed for families that include: Children, adolescents, and adults who are new to AAC and would benefit from using communication aids with high-frequency words or core vocabulary; and Individuals of any age who previously used AAC but are not currently communicating with it throughout the day. We hope that Stepping into AAC... [Read More...]
August 2, 2023
by Carole Zangari -
Looking for ideas on how to support AAC learning with fun, engaging activities? In today’s featured video, Beth Waite LeFevre and Emily Cunningham from PRC Saltillo discuss activities to help AAC communicators use their SGD, AAC app, or communication boards. Many thanks to Beth, Emily, and the team at PRC Saltillo for this helpful webinar. Direct Link to Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nmqh-jijqw&ab_channel=Saltillo